The present disclosure relates to a bearing arrangement for a door, for example, for refrigerators, having a bearing axis for the rotatable mounting of the door, a closing device, by means of which the door is movable in the closing direction by the force of a spring over a specific pivot range, and a damper for damping a pivot movement of the door over at least one pivot range.
DE 20 2006 010 482 U1 discloses an arrangement for the pivotable mounting of a door of a refrigerator or freezer. The pivotable door is coupled to a lever to which a closing device and a damping device are actuated. The closing device and the damping device may be actuated via a pivotable component, which is moved by the door over a specific pivot range. The rigid coupling of the damping device to the closing device via the pivot part has the disadvantage that flexible adaptation of the damping forces or closing forces to the door cannot be performed. In addition, only comparatively small damping forces and closing forces can be caused.
The present disclosure illustrates and describes a bearing arrangement for a door which, using a closing device and a damper, can be flexibly adapted to the respective intended use with regard to the damping forces and closing forces.
According to the disclosure, a first curve guide, which is movable by the bearing axis, is provided for moving the closing device, and a second curve guide, which is movable by the bearing axis, is provided for moving the damper. The curve guides can have corresponding control projections, which act on the closing device and/or on the damper. Two separate curve guides can be used for the closing device and the damper. It is also possible to provide a single curve guide which acts both on the closing device and also the curve guide. Due to the use of curve guides, the forces for closing or damping can be set more accurately, since rigid coupling is no longer provided between the door and the closing device and the damper. Instead, the coupling takes place via curve guides, which act on the closing device and the damper during pivoting of the door. Both the closing device and also the damper can be pre-tensioned in this case by a spring against the curve guide.
The first and the second curve guide may be connected in a rotationally-fixed manner to the bearing axis, so that a particularly compact construction is possible. The first and second curve guides can be arranged offset in relation to one another in the axial direction or can be formed by a single disk, on which control projections are formed.
According to an embodiment, the second curve guide actuates the damper for damping the door both in the closing direction before reaching the closing position and also in the opening direction before reaching the maximum open position. A single damper can thus be used to provide a closing damping and additionally an opening damping. The damper is actuated by corresponding control projections on the second control curve, wherein the opening damping takes place before reaching the maximum opening position, which can be in a range between 90° and 180°, for example. The opening damping and the closing damping can extend in this case over a pivot range of the door of at least 5° in each case, for example during the closing damping between 10° and 50° before the closing position and during the opening damping between 5° and 25° before the maximum opening position.
For a compact construction, the closing device and the damper may be provided in a housing, which can alternately be installed inside or outside a refrigerator.
The damper may be designed as a linear compression damper, which causes a higher damping force during compression than during expansion. The damper can thus provide high braking forces during a closing or opening damping, but not be noticed or be barely noticed by the user during a movement in the opposite direction. Alternatively, a traction or rotation damper can be used instead of a compression damper.
The damper may be mounted at one side on the housing so it is rotatable and may be held so it is rotatable on a pivot part on the opposite side. The second curve guide can have control projections, which act on the pivot part and/or a roller arranged on the pivot part, to actuate the damper during a movement of the door.
The closing device may have a compression spring, which is tensioned between two end pieces. One end piece may be mounted so it is rotatable on the housing and the opposing end piece may be mounted on a rotatably mounted actuating part. The rotatably mounted actuating part can then be moved via at least one control projection on the first curve guide, wherein a rotatable roller can also be provided on the actuating part, on which the at least one control projection acts.
The actuating part for moving the closing device can be rotated in this case independently of the pivot part for actuating the damper, wherein pivot part and actuating part may be mounted on the housing so they are rotatable about the same axis.
Furthermore, a catch mechanism may be provided to latch the closing device in a tensioned state when the door is open. It is thus possible, after the tensioning of the closing device, to move the door in a free motion, without friction or braking forces acting due to the closing device. The catch mechanism can have a catch pawl actuable by a control curve, wherein the catch pawl may be pre-tensioned by a spring in the position which releases the latching. This prevents blocking of the door from occurring unintentionally due to the blocking pawl. In addition, the catch mechanism may enable a compact construction, because the closing device is only moved over a part of the pivot path of the door, so that structural space only has to be provided for this movement range.
The forces of the closing device and the damper may act in a plane essentially perpendicular in relation to the axis of rotation of the bearing axis. The bearing axis may be aligned essentially vertically, while the forces of the damper and the closing device act essentially horizontally in the installed state. A particularly flat construction of the bearing arrangement thus results.
The bearing arrangement according to the disclosure can be used in particular for domestic appliances, for example, for refrigerators or freezers. In addition, of course, a use for furniture or other domestic appliances is also possible.